We’re now into the final month of the minor league regular season and the postseason races are beginning to heat up. With that in mind, let’s update the standings today.

The Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders had a scheduled off-day. They are 58-53 and eleven games back in the division. They’re only one game back of the Wild Card spot though. Scranton’s regular season ends Monday, September 3rd.

They Double-A Trenton Thunder had a scheduled off-day. At 63-49, they are two games back in the division and 10.5 games up on a Wild Card spot. Their regular season ends Monday, September 3rd, and they’re going to play New Hampshire (Blue Jays) in the first round of the postseason barring something crazy these last four weeks.

CF Mark Payton: 2-4, 1 R, 1 3B, 1 RBI, 2 K — 12-for-39 (.308) with a double, a triple, and three homers in eleven games since the OF Clint Frazier injury and OF Billy McKinney trade pushed him into top outfielder duty

RHP George Kontos: 1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, 1 HR, 1/1 GB/FB — eleven of 15 pitches were strikes (73%) … acquired from the Indians yesterday … first game in the organization since Spring Training 2012 and his first game for Scranton since 2011, when they were still the Yankees and had not yet become the RailRiders

Earlier today the Yankees acquired RHP George Kontos, then, a little while later, they acquired 3B Gio Urshela from the Blue Jays for cash, the team announced. He’s not on the 40-man roster and he’s going to Triple-A. Urshela, 26, hit .233/.283/.326 (66 wRC+) in 19 games with the Indians and Blue Jays earlier this year before being outrighted. He’s a great defensive player. You may remember this. Urshela effectively replaces Brandon Drury with the RailRiders.

Weather permitting, the Yankees and Red Sox will continue their four-game series at Fenway Park later today. First pitch is scheduled for 4:05pm ET, though there’s some rain in the forecast around that time, so we might be in for a bit of a delay. Hope not. Anyway, here are some links and notes to check out in the meantime.

Postseason schedule announced

Earlier this week MLB announced the postseason schedule which, obviously, is relevant to the Yankees. Even if you think they’re the worst good team ever, FanGraphs puts their postseason odds at 99.9% as of this writing, so yeah. Anyway, here is the portion of the postseason schedule potentially relevant to the Yankees (here’s the full schedule):

World Series: Tuesday, October 23rd to Wednesday, October 31st (on FOX)

Barring rainouts, the World Series will end in October this year for the first time since 2014. The regular season ends Sunday, September 30th, so this year there are two days between the end of the regular season and the AL Wild Card Game. Last year there was only one off-day. This means the AL Wild Card clubs can use their ace as late as Game 160 of the regular season on Friday, September 28th, and still have him on normal rest for the Wild Card Game.

Yankees among most valuable sports franchises

To the surprise of no one, the Yankees are once again one of the most valuable sports franchises in the world according to Forbes. The fifth most valuable, to be exact, behind the Dallas Cowboys and three soccer clubs. Here are the five most valuable franchises in sports:

Dallas Cowboys: $4.8 billion

Manchester United: $4.123 billion

Real Madrid: $4.088 billion

Barcelona: $4.064 billion

New York Yankees: $4 billion

The Yankees’ estimated value is up 8% from last year. The next most valuable MLB franchise is the Dodgers at $3 billion. Pretty huge gap between No. 1 and No. 2 there. I can’t help but wonder what the Yankees would sell for right now. Great young team, soon to be a clean payroll slate with regards to the luxury tax, relatively new ballpark. Think the Steinbrenners could get $10 billion? The stripped down Marlins sold for $1.2 billion, remember.

Both Salinas and Cabello were significant international prospects. MLB.com ranked them as the seventh and ninth best prospects on the market last year, respectively. Salinas is out with an unknown injury at the moment, but Cabello is crushing the ball in the rookie Gulf Coast League, hitting .342/.447/.613 (189 wRC+) with 16 extra-base hits and nearly as many walks (18) as strikeouts (23) in 32 games. The Yankees didn’t get Ohtani and that bites. He’s good and fun, and I like good and fun players. Salinas and Cabello are nice consolation prizes though.

MLB, KBO agree to new posting system

MLB and the Korea Baseball Organization have agreed to a new posting system, reports Yonhap News Agency. The new posting system mirrors the system MLB and NPB agreed to last winter. The team posts the player, he gets a 30-day window to negotiate with any team, and the posting fee is a percentage of his contract. Also, players can be posted from November 1st through December 5th only. Teams can’t wait until late in the offseason. The old posting system was a blind bid for the player’s negotiating rights, like the old NPB system back in the day.

Back in February our Sung-Min Kim wrote about the top prospects in Asia, and noted outfielder Sung-Bum Na of the NC Dinos could be the next player to come over from Korea. The 28-year-old left-handed hitter has a .324/.384/.512 batting line with 24 doubles and 16 home runs in 105 games this year. Last season he hit .347/.418/.584 with 24 homers in 125 games. Na has said he wants to come over to MLB, though it’s unclear if he’ll actually be posted after the season. I’m not sure the Yankees will need another outfielder this offseason anyway.

The Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders were rained out. They’re going to play a doubleheader tomorrow. Conor Foley says RHP Mike King is coming up from Trenton to start Sunday. Not sure whether that’s a spot start or a permanent promotion.

The New Prospect: SS Alexander Vargas

Vargas, a 16-year-old switch-hitter, hit the international market late because he had not yet been cleared to sign after defecting from Cuba. Once he was cleared, the Yankees landed him for a $2.5M bonus, reports Jesse Sanchez. MLB.com ranked Vargas as the eighth best prospect available during the 2018-19 signing period. A snippet of their write-up:

On offense, he has shown a plus hit tool and is known for making hard contact. He might be a better overall hitter from the left side at the moment, but he shows more power from the right side … Some believe he has the potential to steal 30 bases in the big leagues and sport a .270 batting average. One of the top defenders in this year’s class, Vargas has above average hands with a strong arm and good range to both sides. He’s known for his quick first steps, good body control and fearless approach on offense and defense. He’s also wowed scouts with his ability to track down fly balls in center field.

FanGraphs ranked Vargas as the 14th best prospect in the signing period and says there is “interesting raw material here, nothing explosive.” The Yankees never announce signing bonuses but they did announce the Vargas signing earlier this week, so it is a done deal. The $2.5M bonus is the largest they’ve given an international player since signing 1B Dermis Garcia for $3.2M in 2014.

Yankees sign Verdecia, pursuing Gaston

In addition to Vargas, the Yankees also signed Cuban SS Carlos Verdecia recently, reports Jesse Sanchez. Verdecia received a $325,000 bonus. MLB.com, Baseball America, and FanGraphs did not rank him among the top international prospects available this signing period. I can’t find anything on the kid, though $325,000 is a good sized bonus, so the Yankees think Verdecia has some ability.

Also, according to Jesse Sanchez, the Yankees are pursuing 16-year-old Cuban RHP Sandy Gaston. FanGraphs and Baseball America rank him as the 20th and 24th best prospect in the international class, respectively. MLB.com ranks Gaston as the 15th best prospect in the international class and he is the top unsigned prospect. A piece of their scouting report:

His fastball has been clocked as 97 mph and it’s not uncommon for him to sit at 94-95. That type of velocity is rare in any market and not surprisingly, some scouts wonder if he will be able to command the high velocity on a consistent basis … In terms of secondary pitches, the belief is that those will develop once he signs with a team and receives daily instruction in an academy.

According to MLB.com, the Yankees have signed the No. 8 (Vargas), No. 10 (RHP Osiel Rodriguez), No. 11 (OF Kevin Alcantara), and No. 12 (C Antonio Gomez) prospects available this signing period. Landing Gaston would give them five of the top 15. Pretty cool.

Rodriguez was originally mentioned as a potential $1M bonus guy, though he signed for $600,000. I wonder what that’s about. Someone get bad information? Or did something pop up in his physical and prompt the Yankees to lower their offer? My guess is it’s the former. The latter would stink.

Anyway, those seven players add up to $5,935,000 in bonuses. However, the Yankees have announced 23 total signings in recent weeks (first announcement, second announcement), so 16 bonuses are still unaccounted for. Players who sign for $10,000 or less are exempt from the bonus pool. I doubt those other 16 players signed for $10,000 or less.

In fact, according to Jesse Sanchez, the Yankees have spent $7.9M in bonus pool money already. They’ve spent $7.9M of their $8,721,125 bonus pool, so they still have about $820,000 to play with. Some or all of it could go to Gaston. What this does mean is the Yankees are almost certainly out of the running for Cuban outfielder Victor Victor Mesa, the consensus top talent on the international market this summer.

There’s no reason to think Victor², who has not yet been cleared to sign, will sell himself way short and sign for a mere $820,000. The Yankees have the smallest bonus pool due to their market size, so other clubs can offer him lots more money. The Orioles, for example, reportedly have $8.5M available and intend to renew their emphasis on international free agency. Seems like the Yankees knew they had no shot at Victor², so they pivoted and signed a bunch of other players instead. Works for me.